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Thomas Doughty
(American, 1793 - 1856)
View on the Brandywine River: Gilpin's Paper Mill
ca. 1825-1830
12 7/8 × 17 7/8 in. (32.7 × 45.4 cm)
2005.10
Purchased with Museum funds, 2005
On view
The former snuff mill near Wilmington, Delaware, converted by the Gilpin family to a paper mill, provided Thomas Doughty with an ideal combination of elements for a painting. The natural beauty of the site—as well as similar scenes along the Schuylkill and Connecticut Rivers—inspired Doughty and other early 19th-century American artists as they built a native school of painting. The city’s powerful network of Quakers, including the Gilpins, helped to sustain the Philadelphia-based Doughty and others. The subject matter must have proven popular with local art patrons as Doughty repeatedly executed and exhibited different versions of his mill paintings.
Same subject, scene, or model/Same subject, scene, or model